Posted by Will Brinson

NEW YORK -- Ryan Mallett is arguably the biggest loser AND biggest winner on the second day of the NFL Draft, as he fell to the third round, but was selected by the New England Patriots, which, yes, may be the talk of the second day here in New York.

The best part about the selection, though, is that the Patriots used a selection they obtained from the Minnesota Vikings in the infamous Randy Moss trade to pick up Mallett. Minnesota, as you may know, could use a starting quarterback right about now.

But Mallett won't be a starter for New England, who has a fella named Tom Brady occupying that spot. What he will be is a source of intrigue around the league for any number of reasons.

His personal life is littered with red flags, whether they're all accurate or not. Bill Belichick believes he handle guys with those flags, and there's ample proof -- Randy Moss, Corey Dillon, Aaron Hernandez, Brandon Spikes -- to back it up.

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Mallett's talent, though, is the unquestioned reason why people will watch this: he's got a cannon arm and a pile of upside. He's not the fastest guy in the world, but the ironic thing about that is his 40-time at the combine brought Tom Brady comparisons because it was so slow.

Is he going to be the next Brady? Um, no, probably not. But he can be a hell of an NFL quarterback if he can get his act cleaned up and Belichick can brainwash him into following the "Patriot Way."

That might seem like a stretch, but no one thought that Brady and Matt Cassel would turn out to be Pro Bowlers when they were drafted either.

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Posted by Will Brinson



Got a link for the Hot Routes? Hit us up on Twitter (@CBSSportsNFL).

• BREAKING NEWS: Bill Belichick is willing to trade draft picks. Shocking, I know, right? Actually, Belichick was responding to the fact that everyone thinks they'll be trading. They probably will, because that's what they do, but for whatever reason, it's just assumed that everyone can have their pile of picks if they give something else up. Maybe the Pats actually want to nail some early-round picks this time. 

• Our own Mike Freeman hopped on Pro Football Talk Live! (it is Live! and not Live, right?) with Mike Florio to talk about the labor situation, the draft and Jon Gruden. I think Florio's a decent enough looking fella, but I prefer to take him in the ear. Er, wait -- you can listen here and watch here.

• Taiwan Jones is rising up draft boards, and he's visiting a pile of teams.

• John Fox, the new coach of the Denver Broncos, is apparently quite high on Von Miller. As he should be. Smokescreen? WHO KNOWS.

• Why is Andy Dalton -- who's gotten visits from the Colts, the Patriots and the Saints! -- so freaking hot right now? Peter King of Sports Illustrated explains.

• Tampa Bay Buccaneers GM Mark Dominik got an extension from his employer. But that doesn't mean Raheem Morris is guaranteed to get one -- in fact, it appears the team would rather wait until after the 2011 season to try and ink the coach to a long-term deal.

• This isn't NFL-related at all, but a crazed otter is attacking people in Europe and the picture of him chasing "farmer Joe" is too amazing not to link.

• Mike Tanier of Football Outsiders believes that the lockout helps the Packers in their hope to repeat this year.

• Kenny Britt's case has been referred to the prosecutor's office. That means it could be a while before we get any resolution.

• The Jaguars see Ryan Mallett as a "wild card" in the NFL Draft. Just like, um, everyone else.

Posted by Josh Katzowitz

 

Eye on Football's playing doctor for every NFL team with our Offseason Check-ups .



The Patriots were probably the best team in football last season, compiling a 14-2 record before surprisingly losing to the Jets in the second round of the playoffs. Let’s see what New England had: Outstanding QB, check. Pretty good running game, check. A good enough offensive line and wide receiving corps, yes. A rock-solid defense, um, no.

The team had its problems on defense – which is talented but oh so young – but the wizardry of Brady who knows coach Bill Belichick’s system so well overcame most of those defensive hiccups. The Patriots haven’t had a losing season this century, so whatever constructive criticism that follows in this piece doesn’t suggest that the Patriots suddenly will struggle to win games. With Belichick, that simply doesn’t happen very often (unless, ahem, he’s donning the headset in Cleveland).




Recent unsuccessful playoff runs

A ridiculous statistic for you: the Patriots haven’t won a playoff game since the 2007 AFC championship game. That’s right, since that undefeated New England squad lost the Super Bowl to the Giants, the Ravens in the 2009 playoffs and the Jets in 2010 – all three of those were considered upsets, as well.

Doesn’t matter that New England has an annual chokehold on the AFC East (though New York is beginning to threaten that dominance), the Patriots can’t get anywhere in the playoffs. They haven’t won a Super Bowl in six years. So, what’s the problem?




1. Wide Receiver
Getting rid of Randy Moss probably was the right call for New England, but when the Patriots sent him away, they also lost their downfield threat. You might argue that Moss’ skills are in decline – and the Titans would DEFINITELY say that – but he’s still quite a long-ball receiver. Wes Welker is one of the best slot receivers in the game, Deion Branch had a nice comeback year and New England’s young tight ends are really solid. But a Moss-like receiver would be welcome.

2. More DL depth
Mike Wright and Ron Brace missed a combined nine regular-season games last season before injuries forced them to the Injured Reserve lists while Ty Warren missed the entire year, and a trio of rookies (two of whom were undrafted) were forced to step in and replace them. What the Patriots need in this year’s draft is a pass rusher off the edge, and since they have a plethora of draft picks, they could certainly try to trade up and find one. Wright, with 5.5 sacks, was the team leader, and following behind him were LBs Tully Banta-Cain and Rob Ninkovich. They need some help on the DL, though newly-signed Marcus Stroud could certainly ease some of that burden.

3. Better secondary play
Devin McCourtey had a strong rookie season, leading the team with seven interceptions and Leigh Bodden – who missed all of last year – will be a definite upgrade over Kyle Arrington. Pat Chung is solid at the SS spot, but FS Brandon Meriweather wasn’t very good last season (how he made the Pro Bowl is baffling). It would not be a surprise if New England tries to replace him.




The Patriots obviously have some corrections that need to be made. But this franchise has been the best – and most feared – in the NFL since Belichick took over (though Rex Ryan absolutely will NOT kiss his rings), and he doesn’t hesitate to get rid of loyal Patriots who he feels can’t help them anymore (I’m looking at you Richard Seymour, Adam Vinatieri, et al). The Patriots will continue to battle with the Jets for AFC East dominance, but like usual, New England will be a preseason favorite to win the Super Bowl.

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Posted by Pete Prisco

NEW ORLEANS --  New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick basically stuck out his middle finger to the other 31 coaches in the NFL Tuesday.

How else can you explain his not attending a supposedly mandatory media breakfast here at the NFL league meetings?

The other 31 coaches all showed up, some probably a bit reluctantly, but not Belichick.

And word is the league will do nothing about it.

He's bigger than the game. Didn't you know? There is no arguing that Belichick is a great coach. But does that mean he gets to adhere to his own rules?

I can tell you this: Several coaches were more than aware that he wasn't there and weren't thrilled that they had to be and he wasn't there.

I just hope one of them has the guts to call him out on it. Rib him about it.

"So your time is more valuable than ours?" they should say.

Why wouldn't you? He's just a peer, even if he sometimes acts like he isn't.

This is just another way of Belichick showing his arrogance. It's like when he pushed that photographer a couple of years ago. Or when he got caught in Spygate.

Rules are for fools?

Too bad the biggest fool Tuesday was the guy who doesn't follow them.

This post was cross-posted from Pete Prisco's "Prisco's Points" blog.For more NFL news, rumors and analysis, follow @cbssportsnfl on Twitter and subscribe to our RSS Feed.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz



Eye on Football's playing doctor for every NFL team with our Offseason Check-ups. Also, check out our checkup podcast:





Rex Ryan has got to be the most entertaining coach in the NFL today, but he’s also proven he can, you know, coach pretty well, too. His quarterback, Mark Sanchez, has been fairly mediocre the past two seasons (he ranked 16th last season in passing yards, 19th in touchdowns, 27th in passer rating and 29th in completion percentage . . . but No. 1 in rumored romances with 17-year-olds!) and he was entering the season with a RB in LaDainian Tomlinson that had been left for dead by San Diego and another RB in Shonn Greene that only had 108 carries in his career.

While the offense didn’t finish in the top-10, though the running game was No. 4, the defense was, once again, spectacular. Yes, there were some disastrous games in there – ahem, the 45-3 destruction of New York by the Patriots after Ryan had talked all kinds of trash to coach Bill Belichick – but for the second-straight season, the Jets made the AFC championship game.

That’s not a terrible place to be.



Obviously, the quarterback position needs better production. Sanchez is barely passable in this position (get it?!), and he’s lucky he has such a strong run game and a defense that can make his win-loss percentage look pretty outstanding. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Jets could win a Super Bowl with Sanchez in charge, it just seems much more likely if he could develop into a top-10 QB.

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1. Second cornerback
So, how does Nnamdi Asomugha sound in that spot? Fantastic, but pretty unlikely, I think. Antonio Cromartie possibly could return to the squad and he was more than solid for much of the year (he did have a couple awful performances, though), especially when Revis was injured. Perhaps, Kyle Wilson – the first-round pick from 2010 – will be ready to take his place after a relatively anonymous rookie year. But Revis really wants Cromartie to return, and he doesn’t seem to have great confidence in Wilson.

2. Defensive Line
A few days ago, an ESPN analyst ripped the front-three of the Jets and said the defensive success the past few years was “smoke and mirrors” and “bells and whistles.” We think that’s pretty unfair to a guy like Mike DeVito, coming off the best year of his career. But NT Sione Pouha is 32 years old, Shaun Ellis is 33 and the Jets already released Kris Jenkins and Jason Taylor. In Ryan’s defense, the nose tackle is one of the most important positions on the field, meaning he’ll have to find somebody who can compete against Pouha for the starting job and, barring that, can at least provide more depth.

3. Right Tackle
Apparently the Jets feel good enough about Vladimir Ducasse at right tackle, because they (sort of surprisingly) cut Damien Woody. It’s hard to tell how New York got to that analysis of Ducasse, who admitted that he struggled to learn the playbook last year and couldn’t win the left guard spot at the beginning of the season.



Ryan already has said the Jets will win the Super Bowl next year, and considering they’ve fallen only a game short the past two years, anything less than an appearance in Indianapolis next season will be a real disappointment. Assuming the Jets defense remains a top-five unit – and they probably should – Sanchez continues to improve and Ryan keeps his team stocked with g------ snacks, expect another deep playoff run. And, quite possibly, a Super Bowl appearance.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

Patriots owner Bob Kraft won’t be attending the annual owners meetings this week in New Orleans this week due to a “private family medical matter,” the team announced this evening.

Kraft is influential on both sides of the labor negotiations. He’s a voice of respect on the owners’ side while serving on the 10-member Management Council Executive committee, and the players have said he’s one of the owners with whom they directly want to negotiate a new CBA.

According to ESPN Boston’s Mike Reiss, team president Jonathan Kraft will take Bob Kraft’s place in New Orleans. Coach Bill Belichick also has been spotted around town today.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

If WR Randy Moss had his druthers, he’d be playing, once again, in New England for coach Bill Belichick. That’s what he told KFAN-1130 in Minneapolis (via the Tennessean) this morning.

“I would love to come back to Minnesota. But I don’t know what they have in place,’’ Moss told the radio station. “But if you ask me where my heart is … I am a big fan of Bill Belichick, I really am, and not just on the field. I am a fan of his off the field because the little grouchy man you see on camera is not what you see off the camera.

“If you ask me where my heart and where I am happy is, I love playing with Tom Brady and I love being coached by Bill Belichick.”

That said, he also declared that he wasn’t in the best state of mind after the Vikings released him and he signed with the Titans.

“By me being dropped, I think I went into depression a little bit but I had to suck it up and had to be a man,’’ Moss said. “I have mouths to feed so I had to really take everything in stride and go to Tennessee and try and make things work.

“I wasn’t playing much and they wasn’t putting me on the field. But I had to put my feelings aside and keep playing football.”

For now, Moss wants to keep playing. Well, not RIGHT now. Right now, Moss has money to win (he is, after all, a free agent and the NFL isn’t exactly paying people right now).

“Right now,’’ he said, ”I’m getting ready to take my behind to the casino and sit down and play some slots.”

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